DLA “Partnership” Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’ve seen terrible behavior at this firm between partners (“all partners are equal, but some partners are more equal than others”).

Imagine you are a junior partner sent work by ABC Corp. You’d think the firm’s attitude would be, “great, this partner is bringing in business.” But the truth is, a bunch of senior partners will catch wind of the new instruction, and line up with alibis as to why they deserve the origination credit. “That’s my client, I did some work with another guy there 10 years ago.” And there’s rarely much you can do about it, as the firm will support him/her and not you. And good luck to you if you do go the official challenge route. As one senior partner yelled at a new partner who did so, “You are nothing to this firm, you understand me?”

None of these rules are codified, by the way. So, if you are lucky enough to work with Bob on the first ever deal for ZYX Corp, you might actually get origination credit for that matter. But then, some senior partner will insist on attending a business development function (and remember these guys sit on the compensation committee, you cannot upset them). Then, if they get into Bob’s good graces, you better believe they are getting the origination credit on the next one, and your “but that’s my client” argument will fall on deaf ears.

It’s a mafia shake down, the strong ruling over the weak. It leads to a culture where partners are politicians first and attorneys second. It incentivizes rent seeking over business generation. And then, the senior management have the audacity to lament, “why do we have some many deadwood partners who are not pulling their weight?”

The same dynamic plays out between mid-level / junior partners and their associates. The firm runs constant workshops on business development, but the unspoken rule is the associate will never monetize those relationships if they succeed. Rather, there will be a pat on the head, maybe a couple of phony promises, and an encouragement to keep it up for “the sake of the associate’s careers.”

At the end of the day, it’s all about kissing up to superiors (regardless of how senior you are) and playing politics. And in my mind, it’s why the firm will never achieve its stated goal of playing in the upper echelons of the legal profession.

What are you all seeing out there? Is the situation similarly bleak elsewhere in this eat-what-you-kill, post institutional relationship landscape?